Iron Horse: The Model Tasting Room

By: Esther Mobley

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It’s hard to imagine a more pleasant place to taste wine than Iron Horse Vineyards, situated at the end of a winding, one-lane dirt road in Green Valley. At least from the outside, the property maintains the ambience of a Sonoma County cabin, with old, chipped-paint wooden signs and an outdoor tasting bar composed of large wooden planks laid over used barrels. Did we mention that you’ll be standing above a few hundred acres of lush, rolling vineyards?

Though Iron Horse Vineyards — operated today by Joy Sterling, whose parents founded it in the 1970s — produces Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as still wines, it’s best known as a sparkling wine house. And you’d be wise to focus on the bubbles while you’re visiting, because it’s what Iron Horse does best.–February 2017

WHAT TO TRY: Be aware that the sweetness levels of Iron Horse bubblies vary considerably, from the saccharine Russian Cuvee (13 grams per liter residual sugar) and the Classic Vintage Brut (about 5g/L) to the bracing Ocean Reserve (which commits $4 from each bottle sold to National Geographic’s Ocean Initiative).

INSIDE INFO: On Sundays from April to October, Iron Horse hosts the Tomales Bay Oyster Girls, a roving, all-female band of shuckers, from noon to 4 p.m. It rivals the actual Tomales Bay experience — especially because you can reserve a picnic table in Iron Horse’s redwood gazebo ($35 rental fee, plus minimum one bottle purchase).